His climb up to Mende was superb, putting clear tarmac between him and the strung out group of riders following.

Contador claims the yellow jersey, with Peter Sagan keeping green but losing white to Roman Kreuziger. Laurent Mangel retains the polkadot jersey.
(...)
Read the rest of Paris Nice 2010 – Stage 4 Results (1,190 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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During the race, the lead group opened a lead of over 5 minutes, but with tens of kilometres to play with, the peloton reigned them in, bringing it down to 105 seconds at the 35km mark. At 25km to go, the gap seemed to steady at about 75 seconds, and at 20km it increased to about 90 seconds.

With 12km to go, the gap was under a minute. A good rule of thumb is that to keep clear of the more efficient peloton, a breakaway group needs about a minute for 10km. This would be close. Within 5 minutes, the gap would be about 20 seconds, and with 5.5km, the breakaway of Huguets and Roelandts was absorbed.

Peter Sagan not only won the stage in a final sprint at the end of a big climb. He also took the green jersey.

Liquigas takes the lead in the team competition, nine seconds ahead of Radioshack.

The next stage is in the mountains and heads east to Mende, with a category 1 climb to the finish.

(...)
Read the rest of Paris-Nice Stage 3 results (1,204 words)

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Having initially been ahead of schedule, after one block I am bang on schedule. This is slightly worrying as it implies that I will soon be behind schedule.

Next week, the task is to write the TMA, the tutor marked assessment. Fortunately, I am already half way there, so I’m hoping to be able to rebuild a little slack into the system by pressing ahead with block 2 (due to start on the 20th march).

The course has been interesting, but very involved. I’m not a historian and it’s tricky separating the ‘interesting’ from the ‘important’. When is a detail vital, when is it just ‘colour’? Obviously, each and every detail is important for some later study, but until you get ‘later’ you can’t tell which you need – so I’m finding it tough when reading something for the first time to pick out the key points.

Having said that, if I re-read something, it gets easier as I have a framework in place and I’m not operating from a position of total ignorance.

The four units in module 1 to date are:

1. When England ruled France (i.e. Charles VI of France and Henry V of England giving way to Henry VI having a claim on the French throne, and Charles VII not liking this one bit.
2. Power and Consumption (i.e. The dukes of Burgundy – and Burgundy as a power in its own right)
3. English Society in the later middle ages (the end of the French Wars leading into the Wars of the Roses
4. Belief and Religion in Burgundy, England and France

The latter is the topic I’m looking at now. I’m about as irreligious a person as you could meet – I don’t understand the mindset, especially when history shows us that religions change – but I cannot deny that religion has an important place in the history of the world.

The unit primarily looks at Catholicism and we see how that came about from humble beginnings – and how it mutated over time, with purgatory, satan and even ideas of the trinity being ‘bolt on’ additions. It also looks at the religious neighbours – the Greek Orthodox Church (which came about due to the Roman empire splitting into East and West, with the eastern empire surviving as Byzantium), and it looks at Islam, the incredible rise of the Moslem Empire which went from being in the Arabian peninsula at the death of the Prophet to spanning a huge area in about eighty years – reaching from Asia to the Atlantic coast of Africa, as well as gaining a European foothold. Granada was the last European vestige of this empire in 1492 (Christopher Columbus saw the surrender).

The unit also looks at the Great Schism, where for a time there were three Popes, the third being created to try and unify the two factions.

It’s all interesting stuff – obviously as the course focusses on European history and so Catholicism is central. I’m loving the politics and intrigue of it all – and am struggling with the religion itself – I’m simply unfamiliar with a lot of the terms. Fortunately that doesn’t matter too much as I’m picking it up as I go.

What I’m finding interesting is the thought that despite the historical evidence that much of the church is man-made, often the result of a debate or decree, people still take things at face value. I suppose, this was the point of the reformers like Calvin and Luther, going back to scripture as the Catholic church had ‘distorted’ Christianity.

For the assignment, I have to focus on unit 3 (it’s tempting to skip unit 4 – but I don’t want to!) – the assignment is to write a short piece about a painting showing the Trial of the Duke of Alençon in 15th century France, as well as a short piece on a document, a letter to William Stonor written in England in 1476. I’ve done the writing about the painting, I need to draft the piece about the letter – and then I need to edit both pieces to form a complete response. It should be fine.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : A200 – Block 1 is ending | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A200, History, Open University, religion, TMA, TMA01

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Only Ireland are still in with a chance of the triple crown, and only France can still win the Grand Slam – though I’d love to be wrong, Italy are unlikely to stand in their way, and it’ll come down to England playing in Paris to prevent the Grand Slam win.

With Italy’s win over Scotland in the third match, Scotland will be hungry for victory – so England cannot be complacent. With the Calcutta Cup at stake, hopefully the lure of silverware will act as a spur.

Ireland vs. Wales is likely to be a close match. Wales haven’t been on form, but have shown improvement, and will be keen to dominate the match. With only one win in the six nations (against Scotland), their pride demands a good showing.

All matches are shown on the BBC.

So far, the table looks like this:

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Lars Boom retained the yellow, staying five seconds ahead of challenger Jens Voigt. Sanchez, now ahead on points, is 10 seconds adrift of the yellow.

Laurent Mangel claimed points in all the climbs, and so Lars Boom no longer holds the polkadot jersey (though he hadn’t actually worn it in this race as he held yellow).

Bonnet called this ‘his most beautiful win‘.

Caisse D’Epargne are ahead in the team standings, five seconds ahead of Liquigas, Saxo Bank and Rabobank. Team Sky is collectively 26 seconds off the pace, but they did have the stage win with Greg Henderson yesterday.

In the green jersey, Sanchez is on 40 points, with Sagan on 38, Voigt on 37 and Boom on 36.

Tomorrow should see the field spread out a bit – there are three category 3 climbs, and three category 2 climbs, as well as a couple of sprints. The following day finishes with a category 1 at Mende, that should really shake things up.

(...)
Read the rest of Paris-Nice 2010 Stage 2 Results (1,187 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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Though Lars Boom was leading in the polka-dot classification, he was wearing the yellow jersey, so the next placed man wears the polka-dot.

Alberto Contador, trapped at the back of the peloton, was involved in a crash in the final kilometres, but a team-mate quickly handed over his bicycle and Contador made a supreme effort to and finished the race only 17 seconds behind.

Greg Henderson made a superb sprint finish, taking the line by not much more than the width a wheel rim.

Lars Boom and Jens Voigt are both on 36 points (Voigt will wear the green jersey). Henderson is now on 25. The polkadot competition is unchanged with Lars Boom is in the lead, but Valverde will wear the jersey as Boom will wear the more prestigious yellow.

Lars Boom is also leading the white jersey youth competition – here Kreuziger will wear the Jersey.
(...)
Read the rest of Paris-Nice 2010 Stage 1 Results (1,250 words)

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Lars is the current holder of yellow, green, polkadot and white jerseys.

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Last weekend, Wasps had a humiliating defeat at Leeds Carnegie, who are propping up the bottom of the table. Indeed, Leeds’ win will have worried Newcastle, Sale and Worcester who are now threatened, though Sale have a game in hand (as do Wasps).

Already this weekend, Leicester have trounced Irish and Quins have squeezed out a win against Worcester. In addition to Wasps’ game, today Newcastle plays Bath, Sale plays Northampton and Leeds play Sarries (who Wasps beat two weeks ago).

Going into today’s fixtures, the premiership table looked like this:

I had intended to go to see Wasps vs. Gloucester today, but I’m a little under the weather – and so whilst I’m well enough to resent not going, I’m not well enough to actually go to the game. That doesn’t stop me wearing black and gold today, whilst wrapped up in a sleeping bag.

Beating Gloucester would send Wasps into fourth place, positioned for the playoffs. Wasps should have earned that position last week. We’d be equal on points with London Irish, but would be ahead in terms of games won.

Thus ends the part of this post I wrote prior to the game.

Fortunately, Wasps held on to the lead, having gone from 16-6 up to 16 all, thanks to a try from Lemi.

Elsewhere in the premiership, Leeds defeated Sarries – a good result for Wasps, as well as making the bottom of the table more uncertain. Northampton’s win against Sale put Sale to the relegation position, Worcester remain in 11th place (if Sale had won, they’ve be twelfth).

Sale have a game in hand, though, and Sale, Worcester, Leeds and Newcastle are separated by less than one game’s worth of points. At the top, Wasps are hot on the heels of sarries, but it’s 9 points before Northampton can be overtaken. There are six teams still in realistic contention for the top slots, that’s Leicester and Northampton, then Sarries, Wasps, Irish and possibly Bath.

Gloucester and Quins could, with a run of fortune for good or ill, go either way.

It’s a really tight finish to the season.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Guinness Premiership – Wasps vs. Gloucester | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gloucester, Guinness Premiership, Guinness Premiership 2010, London Wasps, Rugby Union

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Today is the prologue, a fast 8km starting and finishing at Montfort-l’Amaury, which is about 40-50km west of Paris’ centre, and about 20km from the outskirts. It’s a flattish 8km course, the mountain jersey is on offer though, as the Côte de Boursouffle carries a category 3 rating.

It’s a time trial today, which isn’t my favourite stage. I like the mountain stages, closely followed by the flats. The reason for the time trial is to sort out the initial classification in a ‘pure’ way, without other riders affecting the performance of an individual.

If you’ve never watched cycling before, you might like to give it a try (you may like the time trial). There are several competitions taking place at once. The first is the general classification, or the yellow jersey. This is worn by the rider who has the shortest cumulative time. Points are awarded for crossing the line first, second etc – and the points jersey is the second competition. It is possible to win the general classification without winning many stages, and vice versa. This is the green jersey. Note that the colours can differ in different races. The ‘King of the Mountains’ is the polka dot jersey. Points are awarded for being first up the steep hills. The white jersey is for the best young rider.

There’s a lot of tactics involved. Generally, it’s an easier ride in the peloton (the big group of riders) as there is less wind resistance, but there is a calculation to me made regarding a break. Should a rider break free from the peloton? Should the peloton let him go?

Sometimes a rider will break free to force someone to chase him. This will wear them both out and allow the first rider’s team-mate who has remained with the peloton to arrive at the finish relatively fresh. Sometimes a group of riders will break free and work together to maintain the gap from the peloton.

Whether the peloton will chase will often depend on who is in that breakaway group – if the breakaway contains someone who is in contention for the yellow jersey and his team-mates, the holder of the yellow jersey may well break away from the peloton to join them. If this happens, the breakaway group could try and stay ahead (hoping to tire the chasing lone rider) – or if the lone rider catches, they may drop back into the peloton.

Different riders have different roles. A team will have sprinters, climbers or grimpeurs as well as domestiques. The job of domestiqueis unglamorous but vital. They will drop back to the following team car to pick up water and carry it to their team-mates, having to sprint repeatedly only to drop back again. They will burn themselves out allowing their team-mates to slip-stream behind them. For the domestiques it is all guts and no glory.

Alejandro Valverde is racing, though his case is in front of an arbitration court following a doping investigation in Italy.

Big names to watch for are Alberto Contador for Astana, who says he learned from last year’s failure, Franz Schleck for Team Saxo Bank, and Levi Leipheimer for Team Radioshack.

Stage 1 is shown on British Eurosport at 2:50pm.

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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To be fair, the titles give fair warning. Let’s compare and contrast:

It seems today,
that all you see,
is violence in movies and sex on TV.
But where are those good ol’ fashioned values
on which we used to rely?

Lucky there’s a family guy,
Lucky there’s a man who’ll positively can do,
all the things that make us
laugh and cry!

He’s – a – fam – ily – guy

Nice and short, relates to the title without going too far into exposition.

Now ‘American Dad’:

Good Morning USA, I got a feeling that it’s gonna be a wonderful day,
The sun in the sky has a smile on his face and it’s shining a salute to the American race.
Oh boy, it’s swell to say: “Good Morning USA.”

A USA-typical patriotic score accompanies the lyrics, again, it sets the stall without going too far into exposition. American Dad isn’t as good as family guy, but it’s watchable.

Now, for the Cleveland show.

My name is Cleveland Brown and I am proud to be
right back in my hometown with my new family.
There’s old friends and new friends and even a bear,
through good times and bad times there’s true love we share.
So I found a place where everyone will know,
my happy moustached face,
This is the Cleveland show! (inane giggle)

(Originally the lyric was to be ‘happy black-guy face‘, but was changed).

This show jumps the shark right there. Right on the phrase ‘and even a bear’, it’s all downhill from there. Family guy didn’t feel the need to say in the titles ‘the baby talks, strangers can understand him and aren’t phased by this – the dog can understand him too, and oh yes, we’ve a talking dog’.

My name is Pete Griffin and I am proud to be
still here in Rhode Island with my old family.
There’s old friends and a baby and a talking dog,
through side notes and footnotes there’s a hint of a plot!
So I found a place where everyone will know,
my bloated fat-guy face,
This is the Griffin show! (inane giggle)

Even American Dad did not say ‘there’s even a camp alien called Roger and a talking goldfish’.

The first time, it’s not so bad – though the ‘old friends’ bit jars a little, as you’ve never seen those folks before – and later on, when the old friends are old, the new friends aren’t new – and once past episode one, the bear is known. Stop telling me about the bear. I KNOW ABOUT THE BEAR. Grr.

Aside: From the original trailer, the ‘old friends’ referred to were to be Joe, Quagmire and Peter, but in the title sequence the old friends are two chaps we’ve never seen before.

… and what’s this? The son? Okay, they put the boy in with a knowing self-referential bit of humour, but….

I could forgive the Cleveland Show for annoying me with the titles, if the show was funny – but it isn’t. It simply isn’t. It has a moment or two, but….

Cleveland Brown was a great character in ‘Family Guy’. He could be used when needed and off-screen at other times, thus when he appeared, he got some good moments. However, as a lead supporting his own show? I’m sorry, I wanted to like this, but….

If the Cleveland show was following his secret life in Quahog, he could still appear in Family Guy – and Family Guy characters could guest in his show – but if they do make an appearance (as seems to be the intention) it’ll be a bit of a stretch to do more than very occasionally.

The funniest, and most telling, thing about the show was in the first episode. As Cleveland leaves, Stewie exclaims ‘What the Hell? He’s getting his own show?’

From the mouths of babes… (or in this case, the mouth of Seth Mac

In short, ‘Family Guy’ is great (but even there the constant use of “It’s like that time when….” gets annoying). “American Dad” is okay, if there is nothing else on…. and “The Cleveland Show” is a step too far.

Other reviews:

• Cleveland Doesn’t Rock
• Fox commissioned Season 2 before Season 1 aired
• TV Show Reviews
• Why Seth MacFarlane did it

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : The Cleveland Show | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Family, Seth MacFarlane, Television, Theatre

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