Feb 1 2011

Bokeh no. 1: the definition

The term “bokeh” (pronounced /bɒkɛ) comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means “blur” or “haze”, or boke-aji (ボケ味), the “blur quality”.
In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.”


Jun 16 2010

Two little known facts about Maine Coons

1) they like to pose in high-key settings.
2) they like to eat potato crisps in unusual ways


Apr 21 2010

the death of a cyclist and the birth of a bike

On January 2nd, 1960 the legendary Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi died, age 40. From 1940 to 1954 he earned the title of “Il Campionissimo” or Champion of Champions. His victories included the Giro d’Italia, the Tour the France and the notorious Paris-Roubaix race.

To commemorate Coppi’s 50th year of death a special theme bike is build, which will participate in this years’ amateur edition of the Paris-Roubaix race.

the bike’s creator can be found here


Feb 7 2010

The final race

A small registration of the very last race at Col Du Darc. Very soon it will be permanently closed to make room for luxurious apartments starting at $1,000,000.


Aug 11 2009

Lost marbles

to loose ones marbles: to go grazy.

it must have been a child who came up with this expression after loosing his marbles in a game of marbles (or better, it was his opponent who came up with it). I played marbles a lot and lost lots of them. There’s basically three type of kids:

  1. The one that came to school with a certain amount of marbles. He/she would play marbles all day and return home with the exact same amount of marbles.
  2. The one that came to school with no marbles at all, borrowed one marble and returned home with almost all the marbles present at the schools playground that day.
  3. The one that came to school with lots of marbles and returned with none.

I had a tendency to be a type 3 marble player. Please don’t feel sorry for me, I still have lots of marbles.

marbles


Aug 2 2009

Bisogno cambiá qualcossa de drio!

translation from Italian: ‘Something must change in the rear’

In the old days, racing bicycles usually had two gears which consisted of two cogwheels of different size, situated on each side of the rear wheel. Changing gears therefore meant that you had to take out the rear wheel, turn it and put it back in so that the chain would now run over the other cogwheel. In this way you created a different ratio between the front cogwheel and the rear one, thus making cycling lighter (going up the mountain) or heavier (going down the mountain).

Another problem with this construction (and I hope you can see the first one) was this: the wheels were thightened with large wingnuts which had to be loosened in order to change the wheel (and therefore the gear). This leads to another problem, especially on a cold day in the Italian Dolomites. When the wingnuts are frozen, chances are that your fingers are frozen as well. This makes loosening the wingnuts rather difficult, if not impossible. This is what happened to Tulio Campagnolo on the 11th of November, 1927 during a race in the Dolomites and apparently, while trying to change gears he muttered the words “Bisogno cambiá qualcossa de drio!”… Something has to change in the rear.

First, he tackled the wingnut problem by designing the worlds’ first quick release lever. Not long after that, he came up with the very first derailleur, which enables a cyclist to change gears without changing the wheel (the quick release lever is still very handy in case of a flat tyre though).

So, in short…by changing stuff in the rear, Campagnolo was the one who lay the foundations of the modern racing bicycle.

thumb


Jul 3 2009

Boys and their toys

Boys and their toys


Jan 23 2009

Cutting edge

Cutting Edge


Jun 6 2006

Where there is smoke

smoke